Dark Long Nights
by Kare Uta
Summary: Tala shares long sweet nights awake with his new girlfriend, sitting around in pure silence. Oneshot. Tala/OC


_**Dark Long Nights**_

"Tala," She started softly, nestling further into his strong body for warmth.

I tightened by arms around her when she required further warmth, looking down at her as her eyes continued to stare into the hot blazing fire in front of us. "Hm?"

"I'm really glad you stayed here tonight." I felt no real need to reply to that; just holding onto her tightly, kissing her temple occasionally as she let more of her thoughts keep her occupied. "Ne, Tal,"

"Hm?"

She smiles softly, a little mischievously at that, and looks up at me, "What would your friends do if they knew you were spending the night keeping a girl warm and cuddling?"

I smirk at the childish question though I could see the immense curiosity; she knows that I haven't told the team about her yet. Usually a girl would get upset that her boyfriend wouldn't give her any recognition and tell his friends about her but she's fine with it and finds its fun that way. "They'd laugh, and laugh, and laugh." I replied, then shrugging, "They'd eventually get tired, go to bed with grins on their faces and then in the morning they'll laugh about it some more over hot coffee."

She laughed heartily, leaning back and pulling my arms closer to her body, "Why would they laugh? Because you were with a girl or because you were actually cuddling someone?"

"A bit of both." I sat back against the sofa and turned her slightly so she'd sit sideways to rest on my arm and I could look at her properly. "Shouldn't you go to bed? You've got a breakfast with friends to go to in the morning, don't you?"

"They won't mind if I'm a little out of it…"

"Mia," I started in a reprimanding tone.

She smiled and placed one hand on the floor and the other on my knee, attempting to get out of my hold where we sat on the ground, "I'll go get ready for bed; it'll only take five minutes." She left down the hall and I shook my head of the affect she had on me; watching her smiling and shaking her head as her blonde hair framed her face, it always made me feel…different. More than different it just made me feel like I was out of my mind in a good way.

I switched off the roaring fire rather than to leave it to go out by itself, sitting back and waiting a while till it would be a good enough time to follow Mia into the bedroom. Without having to make an estimate on how much time she needed she called me from down the hall just a few moments later.

She was lying on the bed, wearing her usual long light blue trousers and a baggy darker blue t-shirt. I tugged off my jacket and hung it on the wardrobe door before walking over to her to pull the sheets over her. She smiled playfully and tugged at my arm until I crawled into bed beside her, lying on my back and staring at the ceiling. She was quiet; I thought that the comfort of the bed had finally brought her to fall asleep at this late our so she took me by surprise when she pulled my arm around her and rested in my side again.

"It's soooo cold in here." She whined softly, pushing herself further beneath the covers.

I turned my head to look at her, almost feeling her shivering, "You want me to turn on the heater?" I asked, almost ready to get up despite my own exhaustion.

"No, it's okay." Mia moved her head from the mattress and onto my side, lightly resting on my ribs and scooting closer. I remained quiet this time; I didn't quite know what to say sometimes; I never even spoke to my own teammates who I was open with when it came to just about everything. Maybe in this case I just wasn't used to being around a girl. "Tala," she called my name again, "Do you ever think…that maybe nights are too long?"

I chuckled, "Why do you ask?"

"Well sometimes I find them so long and boring…Everywhere would be closed, there are few people to talk to,"

"That's because everyone would be _asleep_!" I reminded her, still chuckling.

She giggled at the intonation in my exclamation, "But sometimes sleep is such a waste of time so then the night seems so boring when I'm not asleep."

"So sleep more." I advised her. "Growing up there was never a night too long and enough sleep for me. I don't know why you find it so hard."

She kissed different parts of my skin that she could access while she continued to think quietly. The little feathery kisses caused that irritating and unfamiliar fluttery feeling in my chest, parts of my body tensing up to an uncomfortable extent. "You know…Even though are nights are always like this…Silent, no conversation, no real fuss with what we do and stuff, I think that it's the most fun I've ever had in my entire life."

That confused me entirely. Maybe she could pick up on the fact that only recently I was doubting what we do every few nights. All we do is get tipsy, sit around the living room in front of the fire or on the balcony if it's not snowing and just cuddle and share whatever comes to mind. We'd stay up late…Till about 3am until she fell asleep. Sometimes I'd stay, sometimes I'd just tuck her into bed and leave. It's always quiet between us and I don't mind that; I quite like the company and the silence but I wasn't sure about what she thought of it.

Bryan goes on and on about how much his girlfriend talks and how the two can't stop talking to each other for a minute when they're alone together but for Mia and I… we've always been really quiet. Not awkward quiet, just…calm. It was just what I needed. So recently I've been thinking that maybe I've been selfish, that maybe I've been with her for my own peace of mind and that she was getting nothing out of it but…it seems like she is.

"You mean that?"

She laughed and nodded, lifting her head to look at me, "Yeah, of course; I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it, silly." She drew light imaginary patterns into my arm, still smiling, "I really love the time we spend together." I stroked her hair as those words slowly sunk in. The more time it took for words like that to work their way into my abused brain the more she grinned at me. "You're so silly." She giggled, lying back against my arm that instantly wrapped itself around her.

"Why is that?"

"Because you thought I wasn't happy with you here." She kissed my knuckles lightly, "And this may make you feel worse about thinking that way but happy in the future; I…also don't mind sleeping when you're here. It's less of a waste of time."

I rolled over on my side, moving closer and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, "You're right," I started with a smirk, "I do feel worse now."

She placed a hand against my face while I continued to put my fingers through her hair. She bit her lip and clutched at me, bringing me even closer to her, "Poor baby; I've been denying you something you've been wanting all your life." She smirked, confusing me with that statement. "Sleep." She reminded, the two of us laughing at that.

"I like sleep. It's peaceful, relaxing…"

She pulled at me even tighter as she began drifting off to sleep. "I see what you mean."

I kissed the top of her head tenderly, smiling and finally relaxing in her hold so that I could get some sleep of my own. I love times like these. Maybe I'm not the best with relationships but I like things as they are. Maybe I'll grow and learn. Until then I can't say I'm even disappointed with what we have. I love this. All of it.

_**A/N: Something cute between Tala and his first love. I'm in a lovely dovey mood lately so more of this will be around in the near future, I'm sure. I've seemingly already perfected the 'angst' theme so maybe now I'll end up perfecting the 'romance' theme. So anyone who liked this please let me know! Thanks for reading everyone! **_


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